Welcome!

I've set up this blog so that all my friends, relations and colleagues in the world of writing can keep up to speed with what I'm doing - from now on, I'll never have to say sorry for not keeping in touch.

You can find my novels as digital downloads on Apple iTunes, Kobo, Kindle and Nook, and most are available as print paperbacks, too.

Monday, August 27, 2012

Guest blogger - Carol Hedges

It's always good to have guests on my blog and today I am delighted to welcome Young Adult author Carol Hedges, who is going to tell us something about herself and her work.

Carol has a degree in English and Archaeology, which - spookily enough - I do, too. But I expect she has forgotten far more about archaeology than I ever knew, because I worked in the comparatively narrow field of Anglo-Saxon Archaeology as part of a degree course in English Literature, and the last time I got my hands dirty was during an excavation in the Old Kent Road about twenty years ago.

Carol has worked as a librarian, a children's clothes designer, a
dinner lady, a classroom assistant at a special needs school and a teacher. She has written eleven published novels and one ebook. She has a grown-up daughter, a husband, a pink 2CV (I am very jealous of the pink 2CV) and a lot of fish.

This is what she has to say about her latest novel JigsawPieces:

"I like the idea of being strong.
I've grown up with the concept. It's in my bones and my blood. Strong people
survive. They don't go under."

So speaks
18 year old Annie, the heroine of my new ebook Jigsaw Pieces. My genre
is YA Crime Fiction, and for me, there are two ingredients that go to make up a
successful book in this genre. The first, clearly, is a crime of some sort. In Jigsaw
Pieces, set in 1998, it is the mysterious death of one of Annie's fellow
students.

The second
ingredient is a strong female protagonist. So what makes a strong character?
Well, it's not enough just to tell readers they are strong. Strong characters
have to demonstrate their strength, usually by being pitted against challenging
events, or other characters. Annie is taken from her birthplace, Norway, and dumped in an English school, where
she has to develop a carapace to survive the daily bullying. Through her
determination we learn how strong characters function and survive in difficult
situations.

But
strength can be shown in softness: Annie 's compassionate side is made clear
when she bonds with the mute World War 1 veteran Billy Donne, whom she meets in
a nursing home. Strong characters must also have faults: Annie is far too quick
to rush to judgement and jump to conclusions. The reader warms to characters
with an inner fault line. Maybe because they are a little like us?

At the end of Jigsaw Pieces, Annie
discovers that there remains a vital piece of the Jigsaw missing from her life.
And here we see the final ingredient of a strong character - there must always
be a sense that there is more to be grasped, new and different conflicts to be
overcome.

For a
strong character, the journey is never complete; there is always another story
waiting to be told. I love writing strong female characters like Annie because
they are so multifaceted and complex. They challenge me and push me to my
limits. I hope they do the same for my readers as well.

Thanks for having me, Margaret - my speciality was Roman Archaeology - tho' I studied Anglo-Saxon as part of my English course. In fact I had the distinction of getting 1 mark for an Anglo-Saxon Exam paper because, frankly, I couldn't be arsed to do any revision, so made it up on the hoof. 'Mildly amusing,' my lecturer said drily.

Michelle: Thanks for buying the ebook. I think you'll find you can enjoy it as an adult - I write it as an adult! Never sure how to categorise my stuff anyway. Get back to me!

Margaret James The Silver Locket

Margaret James Elegy for a Queen Kindle Edition

About Me

I'm a novelist, journalist and teacher of creative writing for the London School of Journalism. I've written fifteen published novels and lots of short stories, one of which was published in the RNA's Golden Anniversary anthology, Loves Me, Loves Me Not - am very proud of that!